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Immediate Release

Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's Meeting With Euro Quad: France, Germany, and the U.K.

Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby provided the following readout:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III met today with the Euro Quad: French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly, German Federal Minister of Defence Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, and U.K. Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace in Brussels, Belgium.  This meeting represented the first Euro Quad Ministerial since 2014.

The leaders discussed the implementation of deliverables from the June 14 NATO Summit and how the Alliance can best adapt to face increasing regional and global security challenges in an era of strategic competition.

The four leaders agreed on the importance of continued close cooperation to strengthen the NATO Alliance, complete an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan, uphold a rules-based international order, and counter the malign influence of shared strategic competitors.